20 February 2018

The east summit of Les Droites in the French Alps is precisely 4000 metres above sea level, making it the shortest of the eighty-two European peaks in the 4000m-and-up class. Source. This post is #4000 from Plenty of Nothing.

30 November 2017

Le Championnat de France de hockey sur glace féminin is the top tier of women's hockey in France. The league was founded in 1986.

There are two pools of six teams each. Each team plays every other team in its pool twice. The games are spread from September to March. The top two teams from each pool participate in a round robin in April. The winner of that is French champion.

There is also a Coupe de France Feminine which is played in June between two clubs.

Les Jokers de Cergy-Pontoise. Founded 1981. 18 times French champions. They have also been women's roller hockey champions of France twice. Their home rink is Aren'ice (capacity 4,500). Green and white. Cergy is just northwest of Paris.

Les Bisons de Neuilly/St-Ouen. Four times French champions. Black, red and white. Rink: Patinoire de Neuilly-sur-Marne (built 1973; capacity 500). Neuilly is just west of Paris.

Les Jets de Evry/Viry. A recent amalgamation of two clubs. Black, white and pink. Evry and Viry-Châtillon are southern suburbs of Paris.

18 September 2017

This monument was erected in 1925 in Bennwihr, Alsace, to commemorate the war dead of World War One as well as the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine by France. The bullet holes date from December 1944 when the American 36th Infantry and the German 189th Infantry fought over the town. Source.

25 August 2017

The Napoleon Cup returns for a fourth year, this time with three teams participating: host Gothiques d'Amiens, Dragons de Rouen, both of Ligue Magnus, and Kassel Huskies of DEL2. The games are:

August 25th Amiens [5 - 0] Kassel Brașov

August 26th Rouen [7 - 1] Kassel Brașov

August 27th Amiens [0 - 2] Rouen

This is the first year that Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières is not in it. Rouen return after appearing in Napoleon Cup the First, and Kassel in Napoleon Cup the Third. Les Gothiques have been in it all four years. Maybe the University of Ottawa should try to get in on this if UQTR aren't going anymore.

[Update: Kassel were a last minute scratch (forfait tardif) and have been replaced by a Romanian club, Wolves Brașov, who play in the Hungarian MOL Liga. Read about it in the Courrier-Picard.]

19 June 2017

23 May 2017

Joan of Arc is still big in France, and there's a string of towns known collectively as les Villes Johanniques that stage annual festivals in her honour. Compiège, where she was captured by the Burgundians on May 23rd, 1431, pulls out all the stops each year at this time. Source. Watch a video.

13 March 2017

The Ligue de Hockey de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon (LHSPM) runs all levels of hockey in the French Overseas Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, including a two-club senior league. The two clubs are Hockey Sporting Club (HSC) or les Missiles, who wear blue, and Club de Hockey de Saint-Pierre (CHSP) or les Cougars, who wear green. Games are played in the Patinoire de Saint-Pierre, which can accommodate 740 spectators.

The league plays a 15-game schedule, which is divided into five three-game cups. In 2015-16 the cups were the Coupe Air Saint-Pierre , the Coupe Marcel Dagort, the Coupe SPM Telecom, the Coupe Collectivite Territoriale, and the Coupe Helene et Fils. No doubt the cup names change year by year according to sponsorship. In 2015-16 les Missiles won 4 of the 5 cups, and 11 of the 15 games. The clubs also play against senior Newfoundland teams.

The LHSPM is a source of hockey talent for Ligue Magnus and the French national hockey team.

24 December 2016

General De Gaulle reviews the men at Greenock, December 24, 1942. Source.

Morton host Queen of the South.

On the strength of a five-game winning streak Queen of the South held first place for three weeks in September, but by early November they had fallen to sixth and became the second Championship club since the opening weekend to ax their manager. From mid-October to early December they compiled a seven-game losing streak. Their worst losing streak of 2011-12, the year they were last relegated, was four losses. Currently they sit in sixth place with 20 points.

The last time these two teams met, Morton won 0 - 5, starting QoS on their spiral.

What was Morton's best ever result against Queen of the South? They beat them by the score of 7 - 1 twice in 1945-46, once in the Southern League and once again in the Southern League Cup. What was Queen of the South's best result against Morton? 4 - 0 (April 27, 2002, in Dumfries) and 0 - 4 (Feb 19, 2011, at Cappielow). What was their wackiest score? 6 - 5 for QoS, Feb 26, 2002, at Palmerston.

Queen of the South's Stephen Dobbie leads all Championship scorers with ten goals.

Today's match has a 1:00 pm GMT start, because of Christmas, but there's a chance it could get postponed or abandoned thanks to Storm Patricia. [But it's game on, and Morton win 1 - 0. Goal by O'Ware.]

How often have Morton played on Christmas Eve? 13 times before today. They have earned 4 wins, 5 draws, and 4 losses. The most recently match was in 1988, when Morton played Forfar to a 1 - 1 draw at Cappielow. The first time was in --

GREENOCK MORTON V. HAMILTON ACADEMICALS.--This match was played at Greenock before a good attendance, on soft ground. Teams:--Morton--M'Pherson; Anderson and Orr; Colligan, Henderson, and Blair; Dale, Hunter, M'Culloch, Newlands, and Reid. Hamilton--Henderson, Allan, and Buchan; Douglas, King, and Thomson, M'Ewan, M'Donald, Eglinton, Clark, and Caldwell. The visitors scored after four minutes play, but for the remainder of the half were confined to their own quarters, and Morton crossed over with a lead of five goals to one. The second half was a repetition of the first as far as play went, but Morton had [hard lines?] all through, and only scored just before time. The result was:--Morton, 6; Hamilton Academicals, 1. The home forward line was much strengthened by the inclusion of M'Culloch, late of Crosshill Athletic, who is a decided acquisition to the team, and he led the others in excellent style. The Academicals were weak in the forward line, but their halves and their backs and goalkeeper fair.

How many Scottish League matches have Queen of the South played against the other 2016-17 Championship clubs?

Raith Rovers 105

Dumbarton 93

Falkirk 92

St Mirren 76

Morton 74

Dunfermline 70

Ayr United 70

Hibs 56

Dundee United 18

Queen of the South vs Raith Rovers is a rivalry I've never thought about. They've played together in the same division (always the second tier) nine years since the four-division format came in. In that time Raith have 15 wins, QoS 14, with 5 draws, in league play.

What if the SPFL went to one division?

The Scottish League could go to one division of 42 teams. Each team would play 41 games and see each other team once, plus cup games. The schedule would be unbalanced, as the home crowd would only see half of the opposition in any given year, which might improve attendance by visiting supporters. The only playoff would be at the bottom.

At this points all the Championship clubs have between four and six draws. Hamilton Accies lead the SPFL with ten.

How is Schaffhausen like Greenock Morton?

Schaffhausen is on the north bank of the Rhine, in an area that would be part of Bavaria if the borders weren't so medieval. The Rhine is even mightier than the Clyde, but Schaffhausen's stretch of it is above the Rhine Falls, making its location more like Lanark's than Greenock's.

FC Schaffhausen is a 19th-century foundation (1896), and has spent many many years in the Swiss second tier without a Swiss title or Swiss Cup. Team colours are black and gold. Stadion Briete is a little bit like Ochilview.

It's the quarter-finals of the Emperor's Cup. The eight remaining clubs are all from J1.

Yokohama F. Marinos [2 - 1] Gamba Osaka

Kashima Antlers [1 - 0] Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Omiya Ardija [4 - 2 aet] Shonen Bellmare

FC Tokyo [1 - 2] Kawasaki Frontale

Marinos have won the cup 7 times, Gamba 6, Antlers 4, Sanfrecce 3, Bellmare 3, FC Tokyo once, and the other two never.

Leonessa have won the Empress's Cup five times previously, and Albirex have been runners-up three [now four] times.

Genk or Gent? I don't know much about Belgian football, but I do know that there ought to be a Belgian comic with a pair of characters named Genk and Gent in it.

Matricule number. The more venerable Belgian clubs are numbered according to when they first registered with the RBFA (aka KVBV, aka l'URBSFA). Gent is 7. Genk is 322. Also, if a Belgian club is 50 years or older it can add the word Royale or Koninklijke to its name. Both Gent and Genk are Koninklijke. Both clubs are in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

The holders of the top 8 matricule numbers in Scotland would be Queen's Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Dumbreck, Third Lanark, Eastern, Granville, and Kilmarnock.